Future Of The Music Biz, A thread about the future direction of the business of music. Options

[Todd Simpson]

The rise of the personal computer and the internet has revolutionized the music industry and put many record labels out of business. The economics have changed and this impacts everyone from the president of Warner Records all the way down to the gigging musician.

There has never been a better time to be a musician in terms of being able to record your own music and share it world wide. However, there has never been a worse time to be a musician in many ways in that barriers to entry are so low that literally anyone can make a cd/mp3 and release it on the web. With music being so easy to distribute, the CD has officially died and just refuses to fall over. So the cash cow has croaked and now the industry is scrambling to grasp new biz models.

I found a great video that talks about these rapid changes and looks forward to the future of this biz of music. The guy doing the talking is one of the creators of the MIDI format and helped create the first electronic drums. He is a really bright guy and this video really helps put things in to context. Enjoy!

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Here is the direct link to the video, the CODE BOX doesn't seem to work for embedding.

FUTURE OF THE BIZ OF MUSIC PRESENTATION

Todd

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[Adrian Figallo]

will check this out for sure!

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[Todd Simpson]

THE CURRENT STATE AND FUTURE TRENDS FOR RECORD LABELS AND ARTISTS.

As many of you know, the state of the music biz is a bit sad. At the same time, there is a positive angle in that the gatekeepers no longer have any keys. Anybody can make music and distribute it and create a fan base with home recording gear and the internet. However, this is not to say there are more people making a living with music. Arguably, there are fewer.

The major labels have been bleeding out ever since the rise of the Mp3. The biz is changing at an accelerating rate and become more and more fragmented. Making it harder for labels to remain viable. The overhead of a record label is huge if they follow the old model. We are seeing the old labels become distributors and smaller labels picking up the slack on finding new artists. This looks to be a continuing trend.

Some of my fav bands all have day jobs and have yet to go "full pro". Epica for example just recently got a deal that allowed them to do music full time after their old micro lable collapsed. Several albums in, several tours in, and only recently with the nuclear blast deal could they quit their day jobs.

This too seems to be a long term trend. Artists are more likely to have a full career with albums and tours and never quit their jobs. The trick is to monetize ones music in any way possible so that a musician or group can become a financially viable entity. This of course sounds a bit terrible as it puts the burden of "sales" of some kind directly on the musician/group. Only after financial viability has been established are major labels likely to take the minimal risk to sign said person/group.

So in short, "Artist Development" is now the burden of the Artist. Labels just can't afford to do it like they used to. But if you can manage to create a small following, and show consistent sales on your own, you are going to seem attractive to the labels. But if you can do it on your own, you might not need them anymore.

Todd

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